OSSO BUCO ON SAFFRON RISOTTO

877 g

Cathy’s friend from choir, Nicoletta, is from Milan. She promised to cook us a Milanese speciality to show us how different it is from Marchigiani food. She chose osso buco, which uses braised veal shanks. The name comes from the Italian for ‘hole in the bone’ and the bone marrow itself is one of the real treats of the dish. It is invariably served with saffron risotto (p 300 in The Dolce Vita Diaries), one of the pillars of Milanese cooking.

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Duration:PT1H20M

Servings:4

Ingredients:

80 g Butter

1/2 Onion

four 3cm thick slices of Veal shank cut across the bone

Plain flour for dusting

Salt and pepper

1/2 a glass of Red wine

175 ml Meat stock

1 Carrot

1 stalk of celery

1 rind of lemon

small bunch of Parsley

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a deep-sided frying pan and cook the diced onion over a low heat for 5 minutes.

Lightly roll the shank in flour and add to the frying pan with the heat turned up until browned all over. Season with salt and pepper and add the red wine. Let the wine evaporate.

Add the stock, diced carrot and diced celery, turn down the heat and cover. Carry on cooking for up to an hour or more. If it starts to go too dry add more meat stock. If it’s too runny add butter and flour to thicken it. When it’s about ready mix in the grated lemon rind and finely chopped parsley, and cook for at least a couple of minutes more. When ready, place a slice of the meat on top of the risotto and drizzle some of the remaining juice from the frying pan over the top.